GTA rail crossings ranked on internal government 'highest risk' list

An Ajax rail crossing is ranked among the most potentially risky in the country, according to a federal government list that was not widely shared with local officials and communities, a CBC News investigation has learned.

• Click here to see the full list of high risk railway crossings
• To see the high risk rail crossings near you, use the interactive tool at the bottom of this page

The Audley Road crossing, near Taunton Road, was ranked fifth on a list of 500 rail crossings from across the country flagged by Transport Canada in a 2014 assessment of risk factors. 

Ranked just above the Ajax crossing, at number four, was a southwestern Ontario crossing where two people were killed when a Via Rail train slammed into their vehicle last week.

Other GTA rail crossings that made the list include several in the City of Mississauga, York and Durham regions. In most cases, local authorities said they were not informed by Transport Canada of these rankings.

"The Town of Ajax was unaware of Transport Canada's rail crossing list," Ajax spokesperson Rachael Wraith confirmed in a statement.

"We believe there should be more communication between Transport Canada and municipalities regarding the criteria for this list and action plans to address the issues."

Residents had 'no idea'

There have been no recorded collisions at the Audley Road crossing. 

The rail crossing is just a few hundred metres from a recreation centre and less than a kilometre from a school. A pedestrian walkway also crosses the tracks at the same location. Last summer, the area was bustling with activity due to the Pan Am Games baseball and softball events being played at a venue just a few hundred metres north of the crossing.

People living nearby were surprised to learn it was considered high-risk by the government.

"I didn't know that. I had no idea," Ajax resident Che Gray, whose property backs on to the railway, told CBC News.

Gray and other neighbours also said they were surprised to hear that information hadn't been shared with the municipality.

"This is information that's supposed to get out to the people," Eddie Persaud, another Ajax resident, told CBC News when he learned about the government's list.

Persaud says people in the area assume the crossing is safe and he's witnessed pedestrians sneaking across the tracks while the gate arms are lowered.

"That's risky. I wouldn't do that," Persaud said, "but I'm not everybody."

Transport Canada told CBC News in an emailed statement that they regularly communicate with municipalities.

Determining risk

The list was generated in 2014 by Transport Canada with the results from a risk assessment computer model called GradeX, developed to assist with targeting improvements to higher-risk crossings. The GradeX system is only made available internally to Transport Canada staff.

In order to assess risk factors, the model evaluates factors such as volume or road rail traffic, train speeds, number of tracks and warning devices present. The federal agency explained that changes made to crossings or other new variables after 2014 are not reflected in the ranking, and that a reassessment today would not necessarily yield the same results.

Officials further explained their ranking system designed to evaluate their crossing safety program in a written statement:

"Risk factors do not necessarily mean a crossing is unsafe. When you compare two different crossings against these risk factors you may deem one crossing to be higher risk than the other. These characteristics are not compliance related, that is to say a crossing that is deemed as a higher risk is not unsafe."

Waterloo researchers helped developed risk assessment tool

GradeX was created by engineers at the University of Waterloo. Using specialized software, they can analyze historical accident data, train speeds, traffic volumes and sight lines in order to determine the potential for future collisions between trains and vehicles or pedestrians.

Professor emeritus Frank Saccomanno describes the system as a "decision-support tool" to help Transport Canada prioritize safety upgrades at rail crossings.

While crossings like Audley Road may not have any recorded collisions, "that doesn't mean that they're necessarily safe," Saccomanno said, "or that it shouldn't be given any attention."

"The approach that we took is to develop a prediction model of collisions using established methods to try to obtain an estimate of what is the potential for a crossing accident," Saccomanno said.

'Highest Risk' GTA crossings

The ranked list contains at least 26 rail crossings in the GTA, though none is in the City of Toronto.

There are seven in the City of Mississauga, most of which are located in highly-populated areas near homes, businesses and schools.

Throughout York Region there are 12 high-risk rail crossings, including two ranked in the top-30, based on the 2014 assessments. Of the 500 crossings flagged by the government, 222 are located in Ontario.

Across the province, between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2015, there were 963 collisions at railway crossings involving vehicles or pedestrians which resulted in 178 fatalities and 156 serious injuries. 

There were 29 rail crossing collisions in Ontario last year. The number is down from 44 in 2014 and far from the recent high of 92 collisions reached in 2005.